


Intimacy Among Infected

by FictionWriterD



Category: Original Work
Genre: Alternate Universe - Zombie Apocalypse, F/M, Horror, Monsters, Mutants
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2021-02-03
Updated: 2021-02-20
Packaged: 2021-03-14 14:00:34
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 2
Words: 3,641
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29172273
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/FictionWriterD/pseuds/FictionWriterD
Summary: Days after a mysterious virus turns humans into flesh eating monsters and mutants, there are those who are fighting just to stay alive.  A woman named Odette tries to be hopeful and helpful to others, but in a world gone to hell she finds it hard to do.  Then there was the man named Xander Kane, who is aggressive and holdings secrets of his own.  Two people who have nothing common and are polar opposites will soon need to rely on each other in order to survive a unique situation...
Kudos: 2





	1. Chapter 1

Odette could hear it. The sound of flesh being torn from the bone of a once living person by an undead one. That sound that made her sick no matter how many times she heard it. God she wanted to vomit. Yet she couldn't other wise her location would be discovered and being stuck in a closet with nowhere to go she would be killed in seconds.

She could only cover her ears and rest her head on her knees, and hope that she would no longer hear it. Still no matter how hard she pressed her hands to her ears she could not escape that terrible feast happening right outside the door. Even as she tightly closed her eyes and wished for it to go away it was hopeless.

'I don't know how much i can take of this-' she thought filled with despair. As optimistic as she normally was, the world around her was a palace of despair, and she felt like a scullery maid holding up hope in a dungeon.

The flesh eaters outside, once humans now turned into what could only be described as zombies, continued their feast. The room had been a temporary shelter for survivors in the city of Sunnyvale, a dozen people had been staying in the apartment. For three days Odette had stayed with them, helping them cope with the dark reality they were in. The oldest had been a man in his sixties, the youngest a young teenager. For three days they had thought themselves safe...

Then the infected found them. They never stood a chance.

That old man? He was killed first. A meal for the half dozen zombies that had been drawn to the apartment by sound alone. The young teenage boy had vanished, Odette never knew what happened but even if they were to get outside they wouldn't have gotten far. She heard the screams of those being torn to pieces and at least one person had flung themselves from the balcony to the street a few stories below, either in vain attempt to escape the infected or to chose their own fate.

Odette found refuge in a closet and, by some miracle, had been able to hide for the last hour. She didn't know how long that would last...

She carefully took a peek through the crack in the closet door and wished she hadn't as she saw a couple zombies tearing out the abdominal cavity of a now headless corpse. Like starving vermin the zombies ate away, tearing and clawing their way through the corpse and Odette retreated back into her dark haven.

The corpses outside, she had tried to help those people while they had been alive. She had studied to be a nurse, after all, and wasn't the number one priority as a nurse to help people? Yet when the killing started she had been pushed into the closet by a man with a tattoo on his shoulder-just before he had been bitten in the neck by one of the newly arrived zombies.

So she hid, for her own safety, but not of her own choice.

Then through her covered ears she heard another sound. Not the tearing of skin but the crushing of bones. The zombies who could not feel pain were shrieking and rustling in the room next door. Odette heard furniture being tossed around and bodies slammed into the walls. 'What is going on over there?'

Cautiously she peeked out through the crack int he door and saw that the zombies that had been outside had vanished. Feeling a bit relieved the waitress got to her feet and slowly opened the door-

-just in time for a zombie to pop in front of the opening. A familiar looking male with a tattoo on his shoulder. Odette screamed and tried to slam the door shut but the creature already had its arms reaching for her and it was too late. Still she tried to hold it back with her arms and keeping it as far from her skin as she could. She knew that the infection was spread by bite and so she tried to keep herself from being a meal. Yet the zombie was far stronger than her and her arms wobbled weakly. She turned her head away and kept her eyes tightly shut as she let out what she felt was to be her last scream.

Her scream was heard, and a second before she thought she would die a sharp pointed protrusion stabbed through the back of the zombie's head and poked out of it's gaping mouth, splitting its jaw in half in the process. Blood sprayed in front of the protrusion and onto Odette who fell back in horror. The blood got the right side of her face and some into the light blonde stands of her hair as well as the front of her waitress uniform. She hit the wall back first and turned in time to see the zombie drop its arms to its sides, dead once again.

Then the body was tossed aside and Odette's savior revealed himself.

And he was very familiar. Slightly spiked short brown hair, wearing a heavily dirty yellow jacket with an ironic black hazmat symbol on the left breast pocket with black jeans, and ice cold blue eyes looking straight at Odette as he stood in place in the opening of the closet. He looked to be in his early to mid twenties.

"Xander Kane?" said the French woman, mostly stunned but also grateful to the man as she was still alive. She had met him once before in a church a few days prior before he abruptly disappeared. She had thought he had died., but was privately glad that he wasn't. Yet her feelings of gratitude changed to pure shock as she eyed his right arm. When the zombie had been stabbed she thought Xander had used a knife or a sharp blade to kill it. While he had indeed used a blade, Odette noticed that his entire arm was mutated into a an elongated double-ended blade from the base of the right elbow, turning his arm into a giant razor-sharp cutting weapon that looked like it was made of sharpened bone.

What had happened to him since their last encounter? She wanted to find out.

"Xander, your arm-wait, where are you going?"

Xander had already started to move by the time she decide to ask about it, leaving the room and she followed him out. Her bare feet squished the blood soaked carpet as she followed. The front door had been turned into a hole in the wall. "Xander! Wait!"

She grabbed his left arm and only then did he stop. Not only that but he swiftly turned to face her, his expression contorted with anger and pain. "What the fuck do you want?"

Taken slightly aback by his attitude after he had just saved her, Odette subconsciously tightened her grip on his jacket sleeve. Then her eyes turned to gaze at his mutated arm, "What happened to you?"

He roughly pulled his good arm away from her, "It's nothing."

How could he say that? His arm was a literal blade!

Odette didn't like that answer. "Are you infected?"

The young man turned his head away, his face turning grim. "Go back to your closet."

He wanted nothing more to do with the woman and started to leave. Yet Odette remained close behind him as they climbed over rubble and undead bodies. The zombies had been either crushed or sliced in half, no doubt Xander's handiwork. Pools of blood covered the floor and were also splattered on the walls leading to the stairs. The lights in the hall flickered erratically.

"S'il vous plaît! Stop!" Forgetting to speak English for a second Odette had let her native French slip from her lips.

Unable to take it anymore Xander turned and grabbed the woman by the shoulder and pushed her against the wall. He had done so without enough force that Odette felt some wind leave her chest. Xander was almost a half foot taller than Odette

"Listen, i don't know what happened to me or if i am infected or not. All i know is that i lost consciousness outside the church and woke up in a lab. I discovered i could do this-" he raised his left arm, the blade shined in the light of the overhead lamp. "I can kill these fuckin' zombies without trouble but i still don't know how to control it. Just leave me alone-arrrghh!"

Sheer anger gave way to pain as Xander brought his left hand to his head, suffering one of the worst headaches in his entire life. Then he felt his knees collapse on him. He fell forward, pinning Odette between his body and the wall, his head resting on the center of her very ample bosom, exhaustion finally setting in.

Instinctively Odette put her arms around Xander and though he was much heavier than her (even without the added weight of the blade arm he now sported) she held on tight and lowered to the ground with him. The fact that he was using her breasts as pillows was something she didn't want to think about the unexpected action made her blush lightly. Still, a more immediate concern arose in her mind. Xander was unresponsive to her touch (while avoiding touching his infected arm) and even when she whispered his name.

"Xander?"

Odette's voice was full of concern, but she instantly noticed that the young man's eyes were closed like he was asleep. Her mind was racing, going into her training as a nurse. Even in the roller coaster of events going on, Odette's mind was set on the well-being of someone other than herself.

"I better get him to a place where i can get a better look at him..."


	2. Plan

Xander opened his eyes after he heard the sound of running water. The light from outside stung his eyes but he soon adjusted to find himself looking at a ceiling fan that was still as a corpse. Turning his head the young man saw an open doorway into a kitchen and someone was running back and forth across it in a hurry. A blonde woman in a waitress uniform.

Only one person crossed his mind, and he wasn't very happy about it. 'That damn woman. I told her to beat it-" A sharp pain shot up his right arm. Reflexively his left swung around and his hand grabbed his shoulder.

His bare featureless shoulder.

Wait a second, he thought before turning his head to his right side. Shockingly, what had once been a mutated limb was now surprisingly normal. His arm looked human. No sign of infection whatsoever.

Sitting up Xander moved his arm in all possible directions to make sure he was feeling himself right. He noticed that his jacket was off as well, folded neatly at his side.

"I see you finally woke up," said Odette as she came into the living room. She was barefoot as she walked across the carpet to where Xander lay on the floor. "I'm glad you're okay, Xander."

"I thought I told you to get lost," he replied before he started to move. Most likely he was going to gather his things and leave, which was his usual modus operandi. Yet the French woman stopped him and set her tray down on the floor.

"You are not going anywhere, monsieur," she said rather sternly.

Xander would have growled a response but he kept his mouth shut.

The tray Odette had carried contained a small bowl filled with warm water and a pair of wash cloths. In the time Xander had been out cold she had found shelter and also took the time to clean as much of the blood off of herself as she could. Pink spots were still splattered over parts of her uniform from the blood she failed to wash out. She had planned to wash up Xander since his arm had turned back to normal when he finally awoke.

"We still in the complex?" He had to ask since the unit looked similar to the others in the building but he didn't want to assume.

Odette nodded once as she rung out one wet rag. "You passed out, and I carried you to the nearest unlocked apartment. We're two floors up from where we were before."

"You should have just left me-ah!" The soaked rag touched his cold skin and he shivered. He held in the urge to shout; in order to keep their location free of the infected in the floors above and below them. Still it hurt like hell and he still growled and clenched his fists tightly. "Son of a bitch!"

"S-Sorry!" Though she apologized she hadn't expected him to be so cold physically. She ran the rag around his upper body, more than once finding herself distracted by how toned his physique was. So distracted she failed to feel a light warmth go to her chest, not to mention a light shade of pink go across her cheeks.

"You don't have to do this for me." Xander was oblivious to her shaking hands and bashful expression.

Maybe a conversation would get her attention off the young man's body, and Odette jumped on the opportunity. "I had finished washing myself before you woke up. Only fitting that I fix you up."

Xander looked around the room. He took notice of the overturned sofa and smashed television. There was also a fireplace that was empty but the smell of fresh ash entered the young man's nose. As for the look of the room there was little doubt of violence that had gone on. A scuffle had broken out here, but no bloodshed. 'Must have been looters looking for supplies or something...' he thought before he felt Odette grab his arm. Her first two fingers went over the pulse point on his wrist and she counted under her breath. It was then he reminded himself that she had been in training to be a nurse before the outbreak. Some habits seemed to die hard, even in the midst of the end of the world.

"So..." Odette began to say rather sheepishly. "How long has it been?"

"Since what?"

"Since you've been infected," she finished speaking and placed the rag on the tray. "I mean, it's not like you could just grow an arm blade like normal, could you?"

She had tried to be humorous given the atmosphere but it was dead on arrival to Xander.

Raising his right arm Xander sighed, "To be honest, I'm not sure when it happened. All I know is that when I was attacked by a monster I-" he stopped, not wanting to go into further detail. He wasn't the kind of guy to tell everyone everything. "You know what, who cares? It's helped keep me alive since the start of this shit and I will use it until I am somebody's lunch." He turned to her, "Now you can answer my question. Why didn't you leave when I told you to?"

Sitting on her knees Odette gave him a calm look. She had been told multiple times to flee but even when her own life had been in danger she had refused to leave. There was a reason for that. "I can't leave a person behind. Especially one that needs my help. Even if that person doesn't want my help."

"You're no good to anyone dead. Don't take such risks if you want to be altruistic."

Odette retorted sharply, "I tend to lose myself in my desire to help others. Don't you lose focus whenever that sort of thing happens?"

The two exchanged looks, which were conveying thoughts they would not say to each other out loud. Her telling him that he's never going to get rid of her, and him telling her that she was annoying to him.

Yet they were stuck together for now.

Sighing loudly Xander got on his feet. Odette remained sitting on the floor. "If you're insisting on playing nursemaid for me that's fine but you fall behind you're on your own."

Odette smiled lightly, her words having reached him she felt somewhat satisfied now.

Noticing the sun starting to go down outside the window Xander's mind went back into survival mode. If there was one thing he was good at and it was surviving this hell the world had fallen into. Though his arm could only do so much. Shelter was top priority as well. "How secure is this place?"

Odette got to her feet and held her hands to her stomach, "Water works. No lights. All rooms were ransacked. The front door can be locked with a deadbolt and two smaller locks. I was lucky to find the door wide open earlier."

That was better than Xander could have thought possible. Still there had to be a drawback. "What's the state of the other rooms?"

Odette leaned down and grabbed the tray, "Bathroom is okay save for a shattered shower door with glass on the floor. The main bedroom is...out of commission."

Her voice cracked at the mention of the room. That was because when she had gone to search the apartment the bedroom was the first room she thought would be safe. Too bad it had been anything but that. The room looked like the inside of a slaughterhouse. Body parts had been thrown about. The people that lived in the unit no doubt had been killed in their beds. The blood in there had still be wet. Odette had locked the door and never wanted to go back.

Luckily for her Xander didn't push her on the subject. "Very well. We can stay here, though we'll have to find things to make a fire." His eyes moved to the empty fireplace. "Thankfully we can use that for light and warmth."

"There isn't much here for us to use. It's been cleaned out. I was lucky to find towels under the bathroom sink," said Odette. She had also found some food in the fridge but no beverages to speak of. No clean blankets were found either nor any clothes that would fit Odette (only men must have lived in the unit, explaining the lack of feminine clothing to be found).

"Limited stuff to be found here, huh," said Xander. He quickly came to a risky conclusion. He wasn't fond of the idea, but if he and Odette were going to stay in this place they would need other things. "I can go out and find supplies."

As much as she wanted to avoid that, Odette knew he was right. They couldn't live off anything in the apartment for more than a day at least. She was also hesitant to leave the safety of the place, but...

"I'll go with you."

Her declaration caught Xander by surprise. "Huh?"

"We can cover more ground if we both go. Besides...as safe as I find this apartment to be, I'd get scared waiting for you to come back."

How scared she was could not be hidden easily. Xander knew her enough to know how scared she was normally and the amount of time they had known each other had been a set of hours if not a full day.

He didn't see a way out of this either.

"Fine. You can come along. Just don't get killed."

"You worried about me all of a sudden?"

Her playful smile thrown his way made the young man look away, annoyed as hell already. "Let's just go."

The lower half of the apartment complex looked like a blood hurricane swept through it. Blood was splattered over the walls and floors, body parts and dead bodies lay all around. Nothing in the first few floors was left alive. Anything that wasn't nailed down was tossed around like toys.

In one of the first apartments the name Gonzales was on the bloodstained nameplate on the front door. A loving family had lived in this unit before the outbreak. Loving and living, but alas, no more.

In a room completely destroyed by the infected lay two bodies wrapped in yellow hazardous material disposal bags were tied up in a kids bedroom. Tied up tightly with duct tape as if to prevent them from rising again.

Between the two small body bags was another body wrapped in the same material as well as tied up with duct tape. What set this one apart from the other two was the fact that it was sitting down and it was fully capable of moving. Ash white hair peeked out from the bottom of the bag at the neck and the creature rocked back and forth and made soft sounds similar to what could only be described as sobbing could be heard. A pair of grey scabby hands were placed on the two smaller bodies.

What had once been Ella Gonzales had been turned by the virus into something more terrifying than a simple zombie could ever be.

A creature filled with memories of what it had once been, and what it had lost. A mother had lost her precious children, taken from her by something she could not protect them from.

Through one of the holes in her mask a glossy white eye could be seen heavily infected, and yet a tear could be seen flowing from the corner of the eye.

She kept on sobbing until the pain of the virus-and her memories-were too much to bear, and she screamed like a banshee. Anything glass shattered or cracked based on proximity to her.

She would make others suffer, just like she had. And she would start with those who remained in her former home.


End file.
